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T.C.JOHNSON. TEMPORARY CARTRIDGE HOLDER.

No. 571,973. Patented Nov. 24, 1896.

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THOMAS C. JOHNSON, OF NEIV HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE IVINCIIESTER REPEATING ARMS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

TEMPORARY CARTRIDGE-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 571,973, dated November 24, 1896.

Application filed September 29, 1896. Serial No. 607,333. (No model.)

To whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS C. JOHNSON, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Temporary Cartridge- Holders; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1, a view in side elevation of my improved cartridge-holder; Fig. 2, a view thereof in rear elevation; Fig. 3, a view of the holder in vertical transverse section and shown as applied to the outer edges of the box-magazine of a box-magazine firearm; Fig. l, a view of the holder in a vertical longitudinal section, showing it to be filled with cartridges; Fig. 5, a detached perspective view of the ejection-spring; Fig. 6, a plan view of one form of blank from which the body portion of the holder may be made.

My invention relates to an improvement in temporary cartridge-holders, the object being to produce at a very low cost for manufacture a simple, light, compact, and reliable article constructed with particular reference to convenience of handling and facility of use.

IVith these ends in view my invention consists in a temporary cartridge-holder formed at its open lower end with one or more longitudinally-arranged yielding cartridge-retaining ribs and with one or more locating-flanges and a spring located within the holder and engaging with the cartridges so as to expel them from it when a sufficiently wide passage-way is formed by the springing aside of one or both of the said ribs.

Hy invention further consists in certain details of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

In carrying out my invention as herein shown the body portion of my improved temporary holder is made by bending and shaping a blank formed from a single piece of sheet metal, and preferably tin-plate, in the shape shown in Fig. 6, but I do not limit myself to producing the body portion of the to its forward end.

holder in any one particular way, as it may be made in one piece from blanks of different form or from a plurality of sections. It is tapered in width and thickness from its rear Its side walls A A, its rear wall A, and its forward wall A are flat, while its top A is arched or crowning. Its side walls are extended at their lower edges to form two corresponding diverging locatingflanges B 13, the upper edges of which merge in to inwardly extending longitudinally arranged yielding cartridge-retaining ribs C C, located opposite each other and arranged parallel with the lower edge or bottom of the holder. These flanges and ribs extend forward to the front end of the holder, but at their rear ends terminate somewhat short of the rear end thereof. To permit the retainingyribs to be sprung apart, the side walls A A of the holder are formed at the rear ends of the flanges and ribs with vertical slits A", one of which is shown in Fig. 1. As herein shown, the rear wall A of the holder is extended downward to form an inwardly-projecting guide-finger A which assists in locatin g the holder with respect to the magazine of the arm and preventing it from endwise displacement.

\Vithin the holder I locate an ejectingspring D, which extends downward from its forward upper corner and is furnished with a long straight shank D, which extends outward through the crowning-top of the holder and downward in front of the front Wall thereof, being brazed or otherwise secured tiereto. It will be observed that the force of this spring is expended on the head ends of the cartridges. The heads of the cartridges are expelled in advance of their bullet ends, thus causing their head ends to enter the boxmagazine of the firearm before their bullet ends. In this way the cartridges are made to feed into place properly, whereas if their b ullet ends should enter the box-magazine first they would be very liable to foul; but, as I have said before, I do not limit myself to forming the holder in any one particular way, as its detailed construction is obviously susceptible of considerable Variation.

In using my improved temporary cartridgeholder it is designed that a charge of cartridges shall be introduced into it by hand. In thus charging the holder its two locatingflanges will together perform, as it were, the office of a funnel. After the holder has been charged it is designed that it shall be packed with others like it in boxes for transportation, and finally they will be compactly arranged in the users belt, from which they will be withdrawn one by one and quickly applied to his gun, on which the holder is located by means of the locating-flanges and the guide-finger.

In Fig. 3 0f the drawings the locatingflanges are shown in positions of initial engagement with the outer edges of the side walls D D of the box-magazine of a box-magazinefirearm. The holder is then pressed inward, when the cartridge-retaining ribs will be sprung apart, so as to open a passage slightly larger in diameter than the diameter of the body portion of the cartridges, which will then be quickly expelled by means of the ejection-spring. The holder may then be thrown away or preserved; but it is designed that it shall be produced at a sufficiently low cost to permit it to be thrown away.

It is apparent from the changes suggested and others which may obviously be made that I do not limit myself to the exact construction herein shown, but hold myself at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention. Thus the holder might be made-with only one cartridge-retaining rib or with only one locating-flange or with only one rib and only one flange. As herein shown, the ribs are formed by drawing the side walls of the holder inward, so as to virtually produce corrugations therein; but the ribs might be formed independently of the said side walls andapplied to the inn er faces thereof. Again, the ejecting-spring D-might be formed otherwise than as shown. For instance, it might be made without the shank D and fastened to the forward portion of the arched top A of the cartridge-holder, as by rivets.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A temporary cartridge-holder provided at its open bottom with one or more yielding cartridge-retaining ribs, and one or more 10- eating-flanges, and containing an ejecting spring which ejects the cartridges from it when said rib or ribs are sprung sufficiently to form a large enough passage through the bottom of the holder. 7

2. A temporary cartridge-holder having two yielding inwardly-extendin g cartridge-retaining ribs, and two longitudinal, laterallydiverging locating-flanges merging into the said ribs which are sprung outward by means of them, and an ejecting-sprin g located within the holder. 7

3. A temporary cartridge -holder having one or more inwardly-extendin g yielding cartridge-retaining ribs, and one or more longitudinal laterally-divergin g locating-flanges, a guide-finger extending downward from the rear end of the holder, and an ej ecting-sprin g located within the holder.

4. A temporary cartridge-holder having one or more inwardly-projecting yielding cartridge-retaining ribs, and one or more longitudinal laterally-diverging locating-flanges, and an ejecting-spring extending downward into the holder from the forward upper corner thereof, and having a long straight shank by which it is attached to the front wall of the holder. I

5. A temporary cartridge-holder having its side walls shaped to form two inwardlyprojecting longitudinal retaining-ribs and two longitudinal laterallydiverging locat-,

ing-flanges, by means of which the ribs are sprung away from each other, and an ejecting-sprin g located within the holder for ejectin g the cartridges therefrom.

' 6. A temporary cartridge-holder formed from a single piece of sheet-steel having its front and rear ends and top closed, its bot tom open, and formed with two inwardly-projecting cartridge-retaining ribs, and two longitudinally-arranged locating-flanges, the said ribs and flanges being formed integral with the lower ends of the side walls of the holder, which are adapted at their lower ends to spring.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribin g witnesses.

THOMAS C. JOHNSON.

Vitnesses:

DANIEL H. VEADER, W. S. BALDWIN.

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